Queer Counterpublic Spatialities

Abstract

The concept of queering space and queer spatialities is the topic of this chapter. It draws particularly on Doreen Massey’s theoretical work on space, particularly the notion of space as not being stable and fixed, but remade and unmade constantly. Queer spatialities can also be understood as counterpublics, a term coined by Nancy Fraser (Social Text, 25(26):56–80, 1990) and Michael Warner (Publics and counterpublics. Zone Books, New York, 2002), where new identities can be formed, alternative discourses and new worldviews nurtured. Understanding space(s) as unstable and constantly changing on the one hand and as counterpublics on the other hand entails an opportunity to analyse the various spatial aspects of schools, from the classroom to the communal spaces, in order to draw attention to the processes of exclusion and inclusion based on gender and sexuality, as well as various possibilities of queering space(s) and creating queer spatialities. Two empirical examples from two different Icelandic high schools demonstrate how queer spatialities and queer counterpublics are carved out within two different settings: in the classroom and within the communal space(s).